Back To Work

I know, it's been a few days since my last post. I find it difficult to find the time to post over the weekend, which seems weird, it seems like it would be the other way around. I just got back from Wal-Mart...I should have gone last night, but really did not want to go. I really didn't want to go tonight either, but it was a must. We were desperate for baby food and cat food and it couldn't wait any longer.

We had a nice weekend. Hair appointment on Saturday, kids went with Dad to the dog park and to see Wall-E and they had a great time. Sunday I got a lot of shopping done. I went to Staples, Office Depot, and clothes shopping at a couple of places. I went all by myself for a couple of hours so I think it went faster than it would have if I had taken one or both of the girls. Brian was nice enough to put together my hutch, chair, and filing cabinet. I came home with that darned filing cabinet in the wrong color, but luckily I got back to Office Depot before they closed to exchange it. I also got a lot of laundry done. So I guess it was a productive weekend.

I had my annual gyno appointment today. That was thrilling. Not. While I was there my new skort ripped the fabric where one of the buttons are...grrrr!!

Tomorrow Ash and Jaydon are going to Nicki and Gannon's house for a play date. Hopefully Cathy can handle them all by herself. I guess we'll find out soon enough. She's even brave enough to take them out to lunch. Should be interesting.

RC said she is taking the girls to the City's water park on Wednesday. That should be fun for them.

Ashleigh and Addyson were so funny today. Ash would blow on Addy and she would just crack up. They were at it for about 10 minutes. Next time I really need to video it.

Before I close for the night I want to send out my condolences to my Aunt Sharon, Uncle Richard, their kids, and the rest of Ruth Cullen's family. Aunt Sharon's Mom, Ruth, passed away last week after a long and happy life. I pray that their memories of the time they had with her get them through this most difficult time.

Sleep tight!

Fatty Thursday Night

Another trip to Circle S this evening with yummy Fort Worth Philly and yummy Pecan Cobbler. We finally got to introduce the Rogers and the Greenwoods to the yumminess that is Circle S Catfish. I sure hope they enjoyed it and weren't just blowing smoke up my a&&.

OMG, Brian is making me watch "Speeders" with him. He DVRs like every cop show there is known to man. But this show is so funny. The excuses these people come up with to try to get out of a ticket. It really makes you feel better about yourself. This one lady just said "this is a rental so I'm not used to this car" and the cop was like "all cars have a gas pedal and a brake and they all pretty much work the same". Too funny. OMG, this old woman just pulled her entire wallet out of her bra...and her car was stocked full of paper towels...usually $8.00 a pack, she got them for $4.99. She was scared he was sending her to jail for her expired plates. Poor woman! I can't stop laughing as I just read the last paragraph back to Brian...I'm afraid they don't have to look real hard to find these nut cases.

RC and Ally took the girls to Burger's Lake today. I haven't been there in years, but I remember it always being a good time. Apparently Peyton started a "crocodile scare" and her and Ash had a drama filled moment. Those girls are so funny some times, I don't know where they come up with this stuff.

My Mom and John are beyond brave and taking the girls to Chuck-E-Cheese tomorrow night. More power to 'em. I have NO desire to go there! Then Dad is taking them to some Cocker Spaniel rescue picnic on Saturday. Me and the sis's have hair appts. It sure seems like we just got our hair done...oh well, I think I'll go a shade lighter.

Nothing interesting to report, I know this was really boring tonight. Sleep Tight!

My First Movie

I finally got around to trying my hand at making a movie. Ally made it sound so easy, and it was for the most part. I had a few frustrating moments. Like when I spent a good amount of time uploading pictures to the Movie Maker software and then it wouldn't transfer them into the movie. It says you can upload from a CD but for some reason it wouldn't work unless it was from my hard drive. So I had to start all over and put the pictures in my hard drive first...grrrr!! Other than that, the actual movie making process was pretty straight forward until I tried to upload it...of course I kept getting an error, so I finally went to the "publish" function in the software and then it worked...OY VEY!! In any event, I hope you enjoy it! I'm going to burn a copy for each of the girls and put it in their individual scrapbooks somehow.

I don't have much to report from the last couple of days. Yesterday I hired Brittany to come get Ash and entertain her WITHOUT the TV for a few hours. So she took her back to her house, blew up the big water slide we bought last year and let her go to town for a while on that. Ally ended up taking PeyPey over there so they could play together with Sydney. They had a good time. Last night I had to go to the A/C office for a few hours to get us caught up on filing our sales tax reports, franchise tax reports, unemployment tax reports, and payroll reports. No, it's not easy running a business and they tax you to death! It's pretty ridiculous how much tax we end up paying. And we just received a bill for business property taxes for almost $4,000. Give me a break. It wears you down keeping up with it all. We didn't get home until almost 9:00 last night from doing all of that.

Peyton came over this morning for a couple of hours while Ally went to a meeting. Then we ate lunch (the girls had PB&J, Ally had Subway, and I ate leftover fried chicken from the Albertson's deli). Ally offered to take Ash back to her house so the girls could play. I reluctantly agreed because though Ash needs some play time, I didn't want to have to go pick her up. But I did. They had fun so it worked out.

Oh, speaking of Peyton, she FINALLY went to get her ear's pierced! YEA PEYTON!! If you remember, when Ashleigh got hers done Peyton chickened out. But she hasn't stopped talking about it. Finally 2 nights ago she told Ally she wanted to go get them and woke up the next morning without hesitation about doing it. So they took her to the mall and she did it. So brave! Good job PeyPey!!

The other day Ash and Pey had such an "Ally/Andi" moment. I was in my office working and I hear 2 slapping sounds right in a row and then just crying from both of them. So I walk in the living room and they are both just sitting on the couch right next to each other crying. I ask "what happened?" They both say at the same time "she hit me". So I ask "who hit first?" and of course they both accused each other. I just stood there and laughed. And I laughed even harder when my laughing made them cry louder and harder!! Too funny! Ash admitted later in the day that it was indeed, her, who hit first. I can't remember why.

Addy has been acting weird today...no appetite and just very wiggly and throwing her self backwards. I wonder if another tooth is working it's way out. I couldn't get a real good look this evening because she was so tired. It should be interesting to see what time she wakes up in the morning because she could not hang this evening and was in bed by 8:00. OY! Ash in bed by 9:00, Brian in bed by 9:30, hopefully I'll make it there by 10:30...I must switch the laundry.

Sleep Tight!

Scrapbooking Marathon

Me and 3 of my friends (Deena, Alma, and Meredith) had a great time doing our scrapbooking marathon. I got 6 layouts done (a couple of 2-page layouts and a few 1-page layouts) so I am pleased with what I accomplished. We stayed up until about 2:00 am scrapping and then I woke up at 8:30 and did another layout. We had A LOT of fun and I thank Deena for being an awesome host! I hope we can do it again someday. Here are a few pictures of the pages I did:






I did this one a few months ago, but thought I would share it since I like it so much:



My goodness, Brian is right, the pictures really don't do them justice. The "Diva" page is by far my favorite and by far the most fun to do. You really must see them in person. I really hope the girls treasure these some day. Ashleigh has looked at them many times already this evening, so it's probably safe to say she will love them. I have filled 3 whole books! Anyway, Addy didn't do so good while I was gone. Brian said she was very cranky and cried most of the afternoon. I'm not sure what it was, she was a little out of her routine because she had to skip a good nap when they took Jessica to the airport. But it could have been her teething or also separation anxiety from me. I hope it's not the latter, but she is around me 24/7 and it wouldn't surprise me. We shall see what the future brings. She was mainly pretty good today since I've been home. Ashleigh missed me too, it feels good to come home and have your daughter (who is a Major Daddy's Girl) throw her arms around you and tell you she is glad to see you. Awwww..made my heart feel good.

Man, you fellow bloggers out there...I checked all of your blogs before I started writing this and NOT ONE of you have posted!!! What's up with that? Slackers! hehehe, I know, I am too!! Sometimes life just gets in the way.

We went grocery shopping this evening...the prices are getting quite ridiculous. Oh, and then had to get gas right after that. Quite a checkbook butt whoopin' tonight!! We did finally use our $25 gift card to Albertson's that we won in the Chili Cook-Off, so at least that helped a little. But we still spent $175 and we didn't get that much stuff. Grrrrrr!!!

Jessica went home yesterday and we are all sad about it, especially Ashleigh because they were sleeping together and Ash really enjoyed having her here. I hope she had a nice Graduation party today with her Dad's side of the family. Did you Jessica? I know you read this at 11:00 every evening, so let us know via comment :)

Well, I hope you all had a GREAT weekend and I hope you have a FABULOUS week! I am sooo tired, Sleep Tight!

My Sweet Husband

Brian took off a little early today to spend time with his sister, Jessica, before she leaves tomorrow. They did some shopping, went to lunch, etc. But he came home with a $50 gift card to the spa up the street , plus a Daughtry and Dierks Bentley CD for me. Sometimes he surprises me with the little things that remind me why I fell in love with him. Thank you Baby!

I am so relieved the weekend is finally here. By the time Thursday comes I am sooo tired and just want to relax. Plus, I have an exciting Saturday of scrapping ahead of me so it's been a long week. I know me and some of my friends are major nerds, but we are having an overnight scrapbooking party at Deena's tomorrow. We are starting at noon and going until we fall asleep. Then getting up and going to breakfast on Sunday. It will be my first overnight without Addy, so I'm sure I'll miss her and Ash...but it will be a much needed 24 hours away.

We're watching Fool's Gold on Direct TV Pay Per View...it's a cute movie so far, and by cute, I mean Matthew McConaughey. Holy Cow..HOT definitely comes to mind.

Geesh...I've been writing this blog for like 1 1/2 hours, I guess I'll finish watching Matthew McHottie!!

Sleep Tight!

More Lazy Race Pics

I just wanted to share some more Lazy Race photos...I did post this morning, so read below.

The Race really wore Addy out, she got comfie with Deena:



The Last Place Team, the Greenwood's, Cathy and Tim:



Our neighbor, Dennis, from Team Cruze, doing the Obstacle Course:



Cathy in the foreground doing the "Float My Ball" challenge and the Harris' doing the Horsey Hops Challenge:



Team Brittany doing the "Float The Ball" challenge, My Dad was operating this challenge:



Team Canning, Shayne and Alma, with their son Ian who accompanied them on many of the challenges. As you can see, they also won the "most lei's" contest:



The York's trying to find a key in the "Treasure Chest" challenge:



The winners of the race, Jessica and Katie doing the "Two-Legged Race":



I like this picture because it shows a lot of things if you look close. The Greenwood's doing the "Horsey Hops", The Canning's doing the "Two-Legged Race", The Henry's doing the "Float The Ball", and The Rogers' doing the "Horsey Hops":



Team Rogers doing the "Horsey Hops":



Sleep Tight!

Addy Has Teeth

I keep forgetting to mention to all of you that Addyson finally cut two teeth in the same day. The two on the bottom front. It was funny because it was last week when we went to pick Peyton up to spend the night on Thursday, June 12th. Ally went around to Addy's side of the car to say "Hi" to her and Ally said "My goodness, Andi, Addy is drooling like crazy". And I said, "Duh, it's been like that for 2 months, hence the 24/7 bib" and then I didn't think anything of it until we got home and I noticed the drool literally POURING out of her mouth like a faucet. Checked her gums, and sure enough, there were her 2 little teeth cut through on the bottom. She wasn't really fussy or anything the day before or the day of them coming through, so I had no signs besides the major drool. My Big Girl is growing so fast!

We've had some thunderstorms come through this week. The 1st one that came through on Monday caused me a little stress and a near decapitation. I was sitting in my office and all of a sudden all of this debris was blowing around outside. Of course it was trash day and trash men hadn't been here yet, so there was trash cans, bags, dirt, just everything was blowing by in front of me. Then the phone rang and Brian said go check the patio cover/tent thingie (we had this up for the Lazy Race and like to leave it up for the summer because it is great shade in the summer months). As soon as he said it I just knew it was probably gone (that's how windy it was). As soon as I started walking back there I could tell it was gone. The wind picked it up and blew it up against the west fence...the legs were all sticking up in the air, metal was twisted and sheered off. The cover itself had holes in it from the fence. Anyway, so it was still really windy and it was blowing like a parachute, so I could not wrestle it down against the wind. So I had to start disassembling it right there as best I could. One leg that I managed to take off must have been supporting another portion of the metal frame because as soon as I let it free, the rest of it "jumped" or gave way and about took my head off. It scared the crap out of me! Anyway, I managed to get it all down, the neighbor across the creek (not the attempted dog killer, but the one next to him) saw me struggling with it and came over to help me. I thought that was really sweet of her...I was already done, but it was really sweet of her! There are still some good people left in this world.

Brian's sister, Jessica, is still here. I hope she is having a good time. I'm pretty sure she is bored out of her wits during the day while we are working. And I know she is tired of Ashleigh's cartoons in the morning. She goes home on Saturday...we are always sad when she leaves :( She's been sleeping with Ash in her bed...well, Ash had an accident yesterday morning and Jess found it by rolling right into it...face first! Lovely. I'm surprised she got back in bed with her last night! I'm going to have to call the doctor again. It's so frustrating!! She has had 2 accidents in the past 2 weeks after a few months of perfection. He had given her an anti-bladder spasm medicine...she started not having accidents 2 weeks after finishing that medicine...so now I don't know if it's wearing off or if it even contributed in the first place. We'll see.

Addy and Jess are still asleep...I'm going to have to go wake them up because Lorena (the cleaning lady) is here and will be ready to go into their rooms soon. I think I hear Addy stirring anyway.

Have a GREAT day...yes, I'm blogging in the AM...miracle!

Happy Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and we had a real nice time. Apparently, I hadn't been to my Dad's house in quite a while as my Dad so lovingly pointed out. I'm pretty sure he keeps a chart or something when we do (or don't) show up. Anyway, my Dad ALWAYS wants us to cook him breakfast for Father's Day (we begged him to do lunch this year, but of course, he refused). So we went over to cook a late breakfast (our compromise was doing a late breakfast), the usual stuff...eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and RC's famous "Pull Apart Cake" that everyone loves except for me. Anyway, breakfast was nice and then we all got ready to hop in the pool. We took some pictures first with Dad and each of us. Here's ours:

Brian and his 1st born on Father's Day:

In this one, Addy fell asleep before even hitting the water.

Addy and Aunt Jessica:

This is Addy's very 1st dip in the pool:

Addy absolutely loved being in the water. When we first put her in she whined a little, but after a few seconds she was just lounging away. She lounged the whole time we were in there, which was a good couple of hours probably. The boys and Jessica left to go play golf as we were going swimming. They had a tee time of 3:00...yes the hottest part of the day. It was like 98 degrees I think and they wanted some peace and quiet away from us. ha!

We took Jessica to Circle S tonight...yummy! I am soooo stuffed!

Both girls got baths while Brian and Jessica went for a ride on the motorcycle. Brian makes Jess get all decked out in the "safety gear" which is good, but they do look funny in it. Brian is the notorious "Safety Man" so Jess looks like "Safety Girl". I should take their picture next time for you.

My office is coming together, but I can't take a picture for you until Brian puts my hutch together. I've laid out the furniture in 2 different layouts, and I can't decide which one I like better. I'll keep you posted!

Let's see, what else? I always think of a million things to blog about during the day, but then when I sit down to blog about them, I can never remember...grrrr!!

I really needed to go grocery shopping tonight...didn't.

I really needed to clean the backyard from the Lazy Race...didn't.

I really needed to clean the inside of the house from the Lazy Race...didn't. Oh, but I did do the kitchen...I despise a dirty kitchen!

Alrighty then, I'm sure I'll remember all of the things I was going to blog about as soon as my head hits the pillow. Oh well. Sleep Tight!

And The Winners Are...

...KATIE AND JESSICA!!! These are Brian's sisters and they do sooo good! It really wasn't even close, they blew the rest of the field out of the water! CONGRATULATIONS Linder Girls!!



We had so much fun for the Lazy Race, when it was about to start I was giddy with joy!! This is how the evening went down:

Everyone started showing up about 5:00 to eat dinner. We provided barbeque and everyone else brought side dishes and desserts...it was all very yummy! During dinner I hear strategies flying everywhere..."I'm not eating dinner so I don't get sick during the race", "Eat up everybody, you don't want to get hungry during the race (wink)", "Wanna beer?", and it goes on and on, it was too funny. A few of the teams showed up in team shirts...RC and Kevin and then Brittany and Jason, which was too cute! So after everyone was through eating we got the game started. Everyone had to start with the 1st clue which was to get as many lei's as you could that were scattered throughout the backyard. And the clue read that you had to wear them for the entire race because whoever had the most at the end would get a bonus prize. The winner was Alma and Shayne with 26. Some people took too long to read their clue and didn't get any. Once all of the lei's were picked up they all received their 2nd clue. Everyone started at a different challenge so they wouldn't be falling over each other. Here's a run down of the rest of the challenges:

• Find Andi at the little kid picnic table under the playground and beat her at a hand of Texas Hold 'Em poker. Team Rogers sucked it up the most here.
• Score at least 50 points at the Octopus Toss game...each of the tentacles had a different point value and you had to throw rings on them.
• Find 1 of 12 keys buried in the sandbox and then use it to open your treasure chest for your next clue.
• Run the obstacle course...we rented a big blow up one which was fun.
• Hop on the horsey hops to the other fence and back...these were rented too and was HARD work. Both team members had to do it and I begged Brian to let them do the short side of fence to fence, but Brian insisted they do the long side...our lot is pie shaped and they had to do it on the longest part of the pie!
• Float the Ball - this one was fun...we rigged up these tubes with a ping pong ball in it. Then about 15 yards away was a bucket with water and shot glasses. They had to run back and forth with water in the shot glasses to fill the tube, and thus, float the ball. Apparently it took many trips and this wore the teams out big time. But as soon as they could get their ball out they got their next clue.
• Word Scramble - They had a series of numbers that they had to find the corresponding letters to. Once they had all of their letters, they had to unscramble them to spell "Texas Pit Barbeque" which s where we got the barbeque meat for dinner.
• Flower Petals - they had to go to the office where we had 250 flowers face down with different color dots. They had to find one with a green dot.
• Rubber Ducky - they had to go to the master bathroom and find one rubber ducky that had "The 1st Annual Lazy Race" written on the bottom amongst 100 of them in bubble water.
• Grab Your Keys - they had to get in their car and drive to the snow cone stand and order a medium snow cone with the correct flavor based on my clue, which was something like "it looks like a bog cat and it contains a fluid that is pumped by the heart". So the correct flavor was "Tiger's Blood". They had to eat whole snow cone before they could get their next clue.
• Two Legged Race - They had to each put one leg in a potato sack and race from one side of the fence to the other.
• Beach Ball Game - they had to find a beach ball with a black star on it amongst 100 beach balls scattered throughout the back yard.

I think that's all of them. When it all started I was laughing so hard I couldn't stop. When Ally was doing the horsey hops she fell off and was literally about 10 inches away from falling in a fresh pile of dog poo. We paid Sydney $5 to poopie scoop at 4:00 right before the race, but of course the dogs have their own schedule. She fell right in front of where I was doing the poker challenge and I could not stop laughing! Luckily Brian was able to capture one of the highlights from afar:

I'll be damned if RC didn't fall off of her horse in the EXACT same spot!! That's my sisters for ya! I could not stop laughing! Neither one of them was even hopping on them, they were just running with them between their legs! Too funny!

Here is a disappointed Rogers Team who came in like 5th place. They are VERY competitive and were not happy with their play! The poker was out of their hands and was based on luck and it wasn't in their favor. Plus, at the snow cone stand they ran into a line they had to wait in. But I hope they had fun! Poor Jeremy has been fighting a fever.

Here's Team Harris in action trying to figure out the Treasure Chest game. They only got 7th overall.

Here is a shot of Team Henry doing the Two-Legged Race. I slowed them down by making them smile for the camera! Deena was wishing she had put her hair up by the time she got to the horsey hops game!

The Canning Team did awesome and they even had their son Ian with them the whole time. I had a blast and I hope everyone else did too! Some things I would change would be to start a little later, like at 8:00 or so because it was sooo hot when we did it at like 6:30. Also, the flower petals had 10 green dots, I should have only had like 3 to make it more difficult. Same with the rubber duckies...there were 10 with the correct phrase, I should have only done 2. Plus, I wanted to have TONS of bubbles, but I ran out of time and couldn't sit there and wait to fill up the tub.

We ended up having a prize for everyone. 1st place won $100, 2nd - $50, 3rd - $30, 4th - $25 gift card to Chili's, 5th - $15 gift card to Wal-Mart, 6th - $15 gift card to Wal-Mart, 7th - the Movie "Crash", 8th - 9 Moon Pies (there were 10, but I ate one the other day), 9th - my "somethingstore.com" order (you send them $10 and then they send you whatever they want, I ordered 2 which was a pair of goggle sunglasses and a belly dancer skirt thingie). The Bonus prize (won by the Canning's) was a $15 gift card to Starbucks.

A special thank you to all of my helpers who helped man the challenges, we couldn't have done it without you! Mom, John, Dad, Anna, Joy, Ryan, Margarete, Little Brian, and Sydney...thanks so much!!

Time to start coming up with next year's games and clues. I had all of the clues rhyming, which was challenging. All in all, I think it went well and will definitely do it again next year! This blog only lets me post 5 photos per blog, so I'll post more 5 at a time when I blog in the coming week.

I'll do my Father's Day blog tomorrow night. Sleep Tight!

I'm Getting So Excited...

...For the Lazy Race this Saturday. I've been writing out the clues tonight and having a lot of fun with it. I really hope everyone has a good time competing in the race, and I really hope I don't screw up any of the clues! But this is all in good fun and hopefully it will turn out well. Stay tuned for details and photos of the BIG event!

So my dog, Sally, thinks Addy's bouncer seat is her new bed. Here is a picture of her lounging it up in my baby's chair.



Who does she think she is anyway? A spoiled little Beotch, that's for sure. You gotta lover her, that dog will ONLY lay on the softest thing in the room. She is currently laying on the rugs I have laying by the front door in a nice neat pile, THAT I JUST WASHED!! Spoiled, I tell ya!

Ohhhh, our long awaited Atlantic City subs arrived today...all 15 of them!! Mainly Cheesesteak and Regular (lots of italian meats). FedEx dropped them off at 9:52 this morning. I opened the door and could immediately smell them!! Oh, the sweet aroma of my summers! They arrived in pretty good shape and everyone who ordered were in and out all day picking their subs up. I had to put them all on my credit card and everyone is paying me back. Everyone has either paid me or has made arrangements...except for....guess who....come on now....yup, Allyson Lynn!! She escaped out the door without paying up. Hey Ally, where is my $60?? Too funny! It's kind of an inside joke...Ally notoriously always forgets her wallet, checkbook, credit cards, and any form of payment she could possibly make to any place where paying up is involved. It's one of the things we hate love about her!

My new office furniture is arriving tomorrow...my office is in such dismay I can hardly stand it! The book shelves will come later in the week at the store, the warehouse that they ship from was out of stock. Hopefully I will have all of the pieces by week's end! Here is a picture of my current desk arrangement:



Pretty pathetic, huh? A folding table, my printer is on the floor, that box is my trash can, and my filing system is a few more boxes on the other side of the room. I'm looking very forward to being organized again.

Ashleigh said a funny thing to me this morning..."Mommy I don't want you to get married, but I do". And I explained that Mommy and Daddy are already married (I've explained this before...again and again). And she said "But I wanted to be in your picture!" And I asked her if she meant our wedding picture. "Yes Mommy, I want to be in your wedding picture with you and Daddy and I want to be on the edge". I asked her if she meant the edge of the picture. "Yes, Mommy I want to be in the picture on the edge". Okay...well maybe if Mommy and Daddy renew our vows and get "married" again, you can be in the picture on the edge. "Good, Mommy, because that's what I want". Whew...I don't know where that girl comes from sometimes! She cracks me up!

Alrighty, Brian is already in bed, and I'm jealous, so I'm heading that way! Sleep Tight!

Fun Weekend

It was a good weekend overall. Brian and I didn't spend any time together on Saturday, but today we got to spend all day together today with the girls. I scrapbooked yesterday with Alma and Deena. We had a good time and go to spend from noon until about 5:30. I got off to a slow start and only completely finished 1 layout...I did Ashleigh's 1st day of 3 year old Parent's Day Out. I did start her tee-ball layout, but I didn't get very far before I had to pack up and leave. But it will be a cute one. I had to be back by 6:00 because Brian had the girls all day and he had to leave for "Bike Night". I think it's the 1st Saturday of the month and it's at a race track where they watch amateurs race their bikes. He enjoys it, so whatever makes him happy. While he was gone, the girls and I went to Sam's warehouse...we needed paper towels, toilet paper, formula, plastic cups, plastic flatware, and didn't need super soaker water guns and a baby raft for Addy.

I stayed up until 2:00 this morning working on my book (my blog book for the girls) through blurb.com. I am so excited about this...it is soooo easy to do and you can make your book look like whatever you want. If you do a lot of customizing, it does take a little time. But for the most part, I am done with everything up to the current date. My hope is to publish a book each year that contains one calendar year of blogs. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Today we did a bunch of running around getting things together for the Lazy Race that's taking place next weekend, and also got something we needed for the hot water heater (an expansion tank or something) and we finally bought flowers for the season. We got most of the flowers planted...all of the ones in the front, but we still need to plant the 2 pots in the back. It got dark on us and we had to stop. We got begonias for the front...I can't remember what we bought for the back!?!?! Yes, I'm tired!!

My goodness...we just got through watching "Ice Road Truckers" and now we're watching "Ax Men". My husband...gotta love him! I can't complain, he tolerates my shows pretty well. Speaking of which, anybody know when Big Brother starts back up again? It should be pretty soon! It's one of my favorites!

We ordered Atlantic City subs and they should be here on Tuesday. We are all extremely anxious. We don't get to go to the shore this year, so we have to get our fill of our favorite summer indulgence. It's not a cheap indulgence, though. The subs alone are $10-$12 each, but when you ship them, the price doubles. We ordered 15 total subs. Bring it on!! Money well spent!

Okay peeps, Muy tired! Have a GREAT week! Sleep Tight!

TGIF

I am so glad it's Friday, it's been a pretty long week. Went to lunch today with my Mom when she got done at her kidney clinic. It was a pretty early lunch, but Ally and PeyPey went to. We went to Chili's and it was yummy.

Afterwards, PeyPey went to MeMe's house for the rest of the day and I took Ash to Jessica's house because she took her and Jaydon to the library for a Magic Show. Ash had a real good time and came home with 3 books that we have read to her this evening. We really need to get her a library card and make a habit about going.

OMG...my favorite movie of all time just came on...Steel Magnolias...it makes me laugh and cry...very funny and very sad! All I have to say is "that's attractive Weazer"!! hehehe!!! Brian is trying to go to bed, but I'm begging him to watch this with me.

Went to Hobby Lobby tonight to get a few things for scrapping tomorrow and to pick up our annual Father's Day stepping stone kit.

Brian's sister, Jessica, came into town this evening. Ashleigh is so excited to see her. She's a bit disappointed though, because she was supposed to come here tonight, but somehow the plan changed and she went to Katie's. She'll get to see her tomorrow, so she'll be fine.

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend! Sleep Tight!

When I Grow Up...

I would really like to be a photographer. I am so thankful to my husband for buying us this camera. We are having a lot of fun with it. We are determined to take a photography class during our slow season next year! We've taken a million pictures, but today was the 1st day I decided to get out the black background I had bought and snap a few pictures. It was a great opportunity because Ally bought Ash and PeyPey the same dress when she took them to Sam's the other day (yes, Sam's has some really cute kid's clothes and Ash guilted Ally into buying her one since she was buying PeyPey one, and they were only $10!!) Anyway, I thought the dresses were adorable and would really "POP" against the black background. My subjects listened pretty well to what I was asking them to do, and here are the results:



I LOVE this one, because it's not posed and typical "them" while they are playing:



My goodness, my little Kindergartner:



Addy was asleep during Ashleigh's and Peyton's photo shoot, so I got these later:



Addy has been playing with her feet a lot for the past few days, so I was trying to capture that. Of course, she wouldn't do it with the camera in her face:



So please give me your honest opinion...good and bad. I need constructive criticism and really hope to improve. There is so much stuff this camera can do that we haven't figured out yet, it'll just take time.

Anyway...I'm still using my little folding table as a desk. I can't really find anything I like that is of good quality and is half way affordable. I would really like the office put back together before the Lazy Race next Saturday.

I got back a little while ago from Brittany's Piano Recital. She did REALLY good and I am always so proud of her and everything she has accomplished with her music. I have been to every one of her piano recitals since she started when she was 8 (I think 8). Sydney fell asleep in the middle of it. It was the last day of school so I guess she was dead tired from all of the excitement.

Brian took the girls with him to Ally's to help them fix their fence. It has been extremely windy today and one of their panels blew down. It's been so windy that there are power outages around town and everything.

Since RC is out for the summer after tomorrow, she said she is going to take up blogging too once I give her a lesson. In her own words, she is a "technotard". Too funny. She actually started one like a year ago, but didn't keep up with it because she didn't know how to do stuff with it. I'm not the most technically advanced person, but I figured this thing out all by myself. It's pretty self explanatory once you get into it and have a little time to mess with it. She also ordered a big scrapbooking kit so she can start scrapping. I'm very excited about this. Her kids are already older, so she has A LOT of catching up to do! ha! She'll definitely have to stick to the highlights. I have a date with my friends (Alma and Deena) to scrap this weekend. Unfortunately, Meredith won't be able to make it, but we totally understand because it is her son, Austin's, 1st birthday. I'm also trying to get Jessica to start scrapping too. Hopefully I will be able to scrap more once my office is half office, half scrapping room!

Ash wants me to go scratch her back...spoiled! Sleep Tight!

Thank You Auntie S

The main thing I want to say this evening is that I so appreciate the comments that Aunt Sharon leaves. They are always upbeat and consistent! I know more of you read this thing by looking at the counter, so please leave a comment every now and then. I know some of you do, and I appreciate it VERY much! I would LOVE for the girls to see and hear from the people that read about their daily lives. When I turn this blog into a book, they will be able to do just that!

Not much to say tonight, but I do want to mention that Brian seems a lot more relaxed and happy since we moved the office and hired Jessica. He commented that he feels the office work is more under control now with Jessica behind the desk and that he feels he can leave the office and not worry because it is in good hands. No pressure, Jessica, but Brian is very optimistic with you on board and he knows you are very capable to keep the ship sailing smoothly! Plus, with the office being out of the house, he can't work once he's home and it actually gives him more off time to spend with his family. He still gets the numerous phone calls on his cell, but I don't think we can change that unless we just turn the thing off. But I don't think that would be good for business. We could use all the prayers we can get for our business to continue seeing positive growth.

Ohhhh, the spiders...A couple of days ago Brian noticed a spider web in my car when the sunlight was hitting it just right...with these tiny little spiders or spider mites in it. Then all of a sudden he noticed them EVERYWHERE!!! In MY car!! I had never noticed them so I don't think they have been there long, especially since I killed 3 of them today crawling on my arm and legs. Now, I know I am a Biologist, and I like bugs, animals, plants, etc, however, I like them under a microscope, or in nature...NOT IN MY CAR!! AND CERTAINLY NOT CRAWLING ON ME AND MY FAMILY!! I kept my cool, but I immediately felt itchy all over. We vacuumed very thoroughly the day we noticed, but they were still there today. Needless to say, Brian went to Wal-Mart tonight and bought a fogger. He put the car in the garage, cracked the car windows, cracked the garage door and those suckers off. It said to stay away for 2 hours...it's been 1.5 hours so far. I hope it worked!! I DO NOT want to deal with this any longer. I'll keep you posted! And don't worry...I will let the car run for a while with the windows open and the ventilation system running to make sure it is aired out before I put the kids in there.

Until next time...Sleep Tight!

Finally, Some Peace & Quiet

As much as I hate to admit it, I could not wait to put the girls to bed this evening, specifically Ashleigh. It's not her fault, but the poor girl is bored out of her wits. And when Ash is bored out of her wits, she talks my ear off. It doesn't matter how deeply involved I am with work, on the phone, or even going to the bathroom, she doesn't shut up!! Would it be too much to ask for their naps to land at the same time so that I have a good hour or two of QUIET?!?! Sometimes it works out that way, but not today. Ash is asleep, Addy is awake and jabbering. And vice versa. At least Addy's jabbering doesn't involve asking me a MILLION questions and is quite lovely. But Ash, oh Ash....Mama, what's your favorite snack? Why is the bug man spraying that stuff? What is his name? Why are you writing that? Who are you talking to? When are you getting up? Where is Daddy? Is Addy going to get big? Where is Sydney? When is PeyPey coming over? Anyway, you get the picture! I'm really not complaining, because if she's talking my ear off, that means she is healthy, happy, and here with me. I am blessed!

Ally and PeyPey came over for lunch today and brought us McDonald's. They stayed a couple of hours so the girls could play. Ally watched some show on Discovery about giving birth while I worked. Fun, fun!! Thanks for lunch Ally!!

Oh, we are ordering Atlantic City subs in the next few days since we won't be able to make it to the shore this summer. Anyone want in?

Went to Office Depot tonight to look at the office furniture I was eyeballing online. I really like it. Of course, my dear husband says it is cheaply made. It is more expensive than some of the others, because it is Christopher Lowell. But it's homey, and not so office-ish. He picked one out that looks nearly identical to what he just took out and moved to his office. I just don't think so. I want something different. Meanwhile, I will continue to use my tiny folding table until we can make a decision. It serves it's purpose.

Anyway, that's about it for now, Sleep Tight!

A Short Weekend

I've said it before and I'll say it again...the weekends fly by so quickly. I am always so optimistic on Friday to get "my list" done, and then Sunday night arrives and I'm lucky to get one thing crossed off. Life just gets in the way of getting everything done, but that's okay, because that means I'm living life, enjoying my family, and trying to relax.

Saturday started getting ready to go to Noah's (my friend, Alma's son) 1st Birthday party. They live in Sunnyvale so we always have to start "early" when making the trek across the metroplex. I have to count backwards to figure out what time I have to wake up...party starts at noon, which means leave from Deena's by 11:00 (I always pit stop in Bedford to pick my friend, Deena, up), which means leave my house by 10:40, which means start getting the girls ready by 9:40, which means be out of bed by 8:30 to get myself ready. No problem, right? Well, I made a gross miscalculation somewhere because we didn't even leave the house until like 10:55 and I was determined to stop at Starbucks because I didn't allow time to eat breakfast at home. The wrench in my perfectly laid out schedule started when I realized I hadn't wrapped Noah's presents yet. Of course, for kids I have to actually wrap the presents since they enjoy unwrapping them...I prefer no gift bags for kids...even a one year old because they have to learn to like to unwrap presents. My exceptions are if I have bought something to awkward to wrap or if I have bought many gifts for one child and can get away with the gift bag on one or two of them. Anyway, not only did the wrapping slow me down, but my slow as molasses, eldest daughter who could not decide what to wear and decided to take her time getting that most perfect outfit put on. Yes, she is a little diva already. Not quite like PeyPey who will only wear dresses, just picky with what she picks out and then is very independent (and slow) in putting it on (of course, only when we're in a hurry. If I am busy working or something she miraculously can't get herself dressed...grrrr). Anyway, picked up Deena and Jackson (AKA Jack, Deena's son who will be 2 in September) and away we go. We were only 15-20 minutes late, so it was good. We had fun at the party, and the kids love seeing each other. I wish they could see each other more. And Ashleigh was a little bummed that Little Allie (Meredith's daughter) wasn't there. Now let me explain something about the food at Alma's little shin-digs...Alma is Filipino (for some of you, that might be enough said) and you may think the Linder's overdo everything, but let me tell you, the Linder's don't have anything on the Filipino community. There was literally enough food there to feed a small Army...hamburgers, hot dogs, spaghetti, egg rolls, shrimp, stuffed chicken, fried rice, baked beans, cheese cubes, grapes, Asian noodles, corn on the cob, and the list goes on and on. And when I list these foods, I don't mean a little bowl of each...there were vats of each...those big serving vessels with the burners under each of them. It's unbelievable. As people were leaving and carrying out grocery bags full of leftovers, there was still a TON of food left!! It was a nice time, and I love any excuse we have to get together with those girls. Happy 1st Birthday Noah!!

Brian and I were going to do our Anniversary celebrating that night, but I didn't get home until like 6:00 and Brian ended up having 6 service calls and got home about the same time I did. So we'll just do it another weekend...when Brian isn't on call. :)

I did get a little irritated with my sisters on Friday night, more Ally than RC. We were supposed to go to see Sex in the City with RC's friend, Susan. We were going to meet at 5:45 and then drive to North East Mall to meet Susan. Well, Brian got an emergency call and ended up being there for like 3 hours and didn't get home until around 7:30 or so. So I had told my sisters I wouldn't be able to make it because Brian wouldn't be back in time to watch the girls. Ally got so pissy with me like I was purposely cancelling and I guess she just wanted me to leave the girls at home by themselves or something. What was I supposed to do? I had no choice. She suggested I ask Brittany to watch them...well, Brittany does babysit for us occasionally but she is very uncomfortable babysitting them when they are babies, she's just not experienced with babysitting babies. Plus, we all know now that Addy cries due to probable separation anxiety and I knew based on what Brian had told me, that he wouldn't be back to relieve her anytime soon, if she was even available at last minute anyway. So I am just irritated about the whole thing. Whatever...I'll remember that next time she has to unexpectedly show a house and cancel on something...like when she made Steve take the girls to a carnival by himself because she got a call as they were walking out the door to go show a house. Grrrr!!

Today, was a lot of clearing of desks and then moving them to the new shop. You should see my home office now...my computer is literally on a folding table in the corner and everything else is on the floor. Needless to say, I have to go buy new office furniture....bummer :) I'm eyeballing this real pretty Christopher Lowell collection at Office Depot. It's like an off-white color with dark colored hardware...I need to go see it in person though. We have a 20% off coupon so it would be a decent price with the coupon. Anyway, the office in the new shop looks really nice. It's amazing what some paint, a clean floor, nice furniture, and some accents (greenery, rugs) can do to a place. It's not so "industrial" now and has a real warm feeling now. The bathroom still needs some work...the people in that space before us must have been real slobs...grease splatters and who knows what else splattered all over the walls! I hope Jessica will enjoy working there. We are lucky to have her working for us...she is very organized, responsible, reliable, dedicated, etc. I think this little "scenario" will benefit the both of us...she can earn a few bucks while still caring for her children. We still need to figure out how to handle her days off...Wednesday and Friday. I would love to say we'll just schedule Brian to be in the office those days, but during the summer that will be very hard and hopefully we will be too busy to let him be in the office. We were discussing scheduling him in the office on Wednesdays and maybe me on Fridays. I could do it by either doing both of my jobs from the new office or by looking into working 4-10 hour days so I could be off my main job on Friday. We'll see. In any event, I'll post a picture of the new office as soon as possible. Maybe I'll even post a picture of my folding table, ha!

Went to Circle S Catfish for dinner...yummy!!! No, I don't eat catfish (yucky) but they have real good food, and even better desserts. I passed on the desserts this evening. This was in the best interest of my "Biggest Loser" competition through work.

Oh, by the way, Addy seems to be feeling much better this weekend...no more crying episodes and not much of a cruddy nose. I need to rub her gums to see if I feel any teeth yet...I kept stopping myself today since we were moving so much, my hands were not clean enough. Jacoby, Jessica's son, is about to pop out his 1st 2 teeth, so I'm sure Addy isn't far behind.

My goodness, are you tired of reading this yet? It got a bit long, sorry about that. I hope you all have an incredible week...last week of school for RC, Britti, and Syd. OMG...my Britti will be a Senior this fall, I can't even believe it...one is finishing her last year and one is starting her 1st. My emotions are all over the place when I think of this!!

Sleep Tight!